As a background to help in understanding the risks involved in the apostolate of interreligiouis and ecumenical dialogues, I consider it necessary to mention my areas of responsibilities as a bishop in Mindanao and as former chairman of the Commission on Interreligious Dialogue of the...
Some time during the Japanese occupation in 1942, when I was 8, our house in Leon, Iloilo, was burned. A couple of months later my grandfather, Jose C. Capalla, was murdered in cold blood. He was then town mayor. At first I didn’t quite understand...
What is it that makes us call beautiful those objects of our experience like images, paintings, faces, sculptured figures, buildings, flowers, music, etc.? Or,also those ideas, concepts, principles behavior, dance, drama, speech, etc? At first glance, what attract us, demand our attention, are the object’s...
Is there such a thing? Impossible!, many will say. Is it a contradiction? No. It's just something contrary, not really contradictory. What is really contradictory to Beauty is non-beauty, the denial or non existence of the thing we call beautiful. Likewise non-ugliness is a contradiction to...
Last week I wrote an article on Pope Francis as a teacher who teach by his good example. And aided by the internet and media, and of course, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, this goodness of the Holy Father has been shown to...
This was the question asked me in an email by Rev. Fr./Dr. Francis Xavier D’ Sa, S.J., a theologian from Pune, India. His is an expert on Hinduism and on the theology of interfaith dialogue. He has been to Davao City several times invited by...
It's 1:15pm here in Tacloban's makeshift airport waiting for my 1:45 return light to Davao via Manila today 05 February 2014. 'Long day' because touring Tacloban, Palo and Tanauan in just in one day excluding the sleeping hours was heavy to the eyes, the ears...
Our Holy Father Pope Francis has given a new emphasis to the Church’s ministry of evangelization. Right after his inauguration he said to evangelize these days is to go the fringes of society, the peripheries, he calls it. These are the areas where the poorest...
In a previous column I asked 2 questions which I promised to answer now. One was on the big material help many friendly governments and secular as well as religious institutions have sent us for the victims of Yolanda typhoon. The other was on the...
This is one of the most popular devotions in our Catholic tradition. The word "popular", which comes from Latin word "populus = people", reflects the subjects of the devotion who are called "Sto. Nino devotees". And they number in the array of thousands if not...
